NEARLY half of Britons admit they actually enjoy being stuck in traffic as new research reveals we spend 74 days of our life in jams.

Of those who say traffic can be a blessing in disguise, 16 per cent enjoy being able to listen to the rest of an album while 10 per cent have used it as the excuse to catch the end of a sporting event on the radio.

A further 10 per cent said they have been secretly happy to get into work a little bit later.

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The survey of 1,000 drivers by oil company Castrol showed 40 per cent of motorists are secretly pleased to be held up occasionally.

On average Britons spend 41 minutes in traffic each week, meaning they will spend 74 days in jams over the course of 50 years behind the wheel, the findings showed.

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10 percent of motorists enjoy a jam as it means they'll get into work later

This leads to car users missing a host of important experiences.

We recently discovered the average driver stops and starts as many as 18,000 times a year

Claudia Blum, Castrol

A third (38 per cent) say they've been stuck in traffic while they should have been at an important events, with five per cent even having missed a funeral due to congestion on the roads.

Two-thirds (61 per cent) say stop-start traffic is now the most annoying thing about travelling on British roads.

Other drivers cited roadworks and diversions (58 per cent) and the behaviour of other drivers (46 per cent) as their biggest irritants.

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Two thirds say stop-start traffic is the most annoying thing about travelling on British roads

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On average Brits spend 74 days in jams over the course of 50 years

Claudia Blum, European Magnatec Brand Manager at Castrol, said: "We recently discovered the average driver stops and starts as many as 18,000 times a year, and it seems stop-start traffic is as wearing for drivers as it is their engines.

"Forty-one minutes in traffic per week might not sound like a lot, but when you add that up over a lifetime it becomes a significant amount of our lives."

A third of those surveyed (36 per cent) said they had been embarrassed after being caught out looking at the person next to them in traffic and 25 per cent confessed they dreaded pulling up in traffic next to a former partner.